9-1-1 looks at near- and mid-term options

The 9-1-1 tri-county Central Dispatch Authority's board of directors and Technical Advisory Committee held a special meeting Wednesday to discuss future options for the authority's increasingly congested communications system.

Executive director Bob Bradley opened the meeting in the commissioners' room of the Emmet County building by announcing that the authority's application for $1 million in federal funds, submitted by Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, had been cut from the budget.

He said the authority, which dispatches emergency services to Charlevoix, Emmet and Cheboygan counties, would continue to seek funding from federal and other sources to meet its short-term needs.

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With only four of the board's nine members attending the meeting, board chair Jim Tamlyn declared the session to be informational and not an official board meeting because of a lack of a quorum.

The two dozen officials representing the three counties listened to a final report on the authority's communications system presented by consultants Philip Hempel and Michael Whately of Communications Systems & Implementation (CSI) of Berrien Center.

Hempel, senior consultant for the firm, said his goal in the three-month study was to assist the authority in meeting the needs of system users today while planning for the needs of tomorrow.

He concluded that the authority's equipment, purchased as used when the authority was established some six years ago, is now obsolete, with repair parts difficult to obtain.

He said communications coverage is inadequate, with antenna problems at most sites. Tower site grounding is "woefully inadequate," he said.

Hempel said the microwave subsystem was poorly designed, engineered and installed, and uses improper antennas. System capacity is almost at peak use and is only able to operate at low speed data rates, too slow for the authority's new computer aided dispatch (CAD) system, he said.

"At peak periods, it chokes," he said.

Hempel recommended steps be taken now that will for the most part be compatible with a new system upgrade within the next five years. He said the first priority would be to upgrade the microwave system at an estimated cost of $750,000.

Hempel said the upgrade would eliminate most system outages, system lock-ups and audio howls and make higher speed mobile data possible and allow on-screen mapping and an automatic vehicle locator system to function.

He also recommended new antennas and "line kits" be installed, and if possible to construct a 250-foot tower near Alanson to eliminate long-standing dead spots in the area. Finally, he said improved grounding systems should be done at most of the authority's 17 tower sites, at a cost of $8,000 each.

He said citizens should be aware that the short-term improvements, which could run as high as $1.8 million, would only be a precursor to an entirely new system that might cost between $12 million and $16 million.

Charlevoix police chief Dennis Halverson said communities in the three counties need to be comfortable with the level of services provided by law enforcement, fire and emergency medical personnel, and that in his view, doing nothing was not an option.

Cheboygan County sheriff Dale Clarmont said highest on his list of priorities are mobile data and paging.

Following CSI's presentation, Paul Schulert, director of the communications division of the Michigan Department of Information Technology, said the state wanted more participation in its 800-megahertz system, which provides statewide communications coverage.

He said Hempel's estimates of costs to join the state system were far too high and based on incorrect assumptions. He promised to provide the 9-1-1 board with up-to-date information on the state system, including costs.

State police F/Lt. Gene Adamczyk, 800 MHz/9-1-1 section commander, said state police are in the pilot phase of setting up a mobile data network, considered a major component of any new system that would serve area law enforcement officials.

"We are all looking for homeland security money," Adamczyk said, adding he could not promise that the state would be able to fund full deployment of the system given the poor economy and budget deficits.

Board chair Tamlyn said that although he was not against joining the state system as a alternative to upgrading 9-1-1's own system, 9-1-1 officials had difficulties with state officials when first setting up the tri-county system.

"The state would not negotiate a price and wanted us to wait for them to develop their system," he said. "We said, 'We won't wait for technology to catch up with the state police.'"

Tamlyn said the board and authority managers would spend the next three months analyzing the CSI report and options open to the authority before the boards of commissioners of all three counties meet at the Headlands in May to chart out a course of action.

He said the politics of where to go next would be a primary concern and dictate what could and could not be done. He said federal officials are receptive to what the authority is trying to accomplish.

Emmet County controller Lyn Johnson said possible bonding of a major systems upgrade should not extend beyond the life expectancy of the equipment purchased.

He said the board should also weigh the value and costs of undertaking a full systems upgrade at an early date against spending money to buttress the current system over the short term.